...Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Rahul Jain from Dolat Capital. Thank you, and over to you, sir.
Thank you, Ganesh. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of Dolat Capital, we welcome you all to the Q4 conference and annual results for IRCTC Limited. I take this opportunity to welcome the management of IRCTC, represented by Mr. Sanjay Kumar Jain, who is CMD of the company, and Mr. Ajit Kumar-ji, who is Director of Finance and CFO of the company. Also, we have today with us, Dr. Lokiah Ravikumar-ji, who is Director of Catering Services, and Mr. Rahul Himalian-ji, who is Director for Tourism and Marketing segment. And now I would like to hand the conference over to IRCTC management to take the proceeding forward. Over to you, please.
Thank you, Rahul. A very good afternoon to everybody, and a very warm welcome to this conference call of IRCTC for the quarter and year ending March 2024. At the outset, I'm happy to announce that your company has achieved its highest ever revenue and highest ever profit, setting a new benchmark in its journey as a listed company. I shall first give an overall view about financial year 2024 and this quarter results, post which I will ask my Director of Finance and CFO to provide the details of the performance of our company business-wide, segment-wide. We shall have then the question and answer session. I am pleased to report that Q4 has been an exceptional quarter for our company, in which we have achieved an all-time high revenue of INR 1,155 crore.
This represents a robust growth of 19.7% year-on-year. The catering segment has notably driven this quarter revenue, showcasing the strength and potential of this business area. For the financial year 2024, we have achieved a remarkable operating revenue of INR 4,270 crore, reflecting a substantial growth of more than 20% year-on-year. Our EBITDA is at INR 1,466 crore, marking a 15.2% increase year-on-year. As before, exceptional items for the financial year is outstanding INR 1,170 crore, significantly up from INR 978 crore year-on-year basis. Overall, these results underscore our company's strong performance and resilience. We look forward to continuing this positive momentum and delivering sustained growth and profitability in the coming quarters.
Our board has recommended a final dividend of INR 4 crore per share, subject to shareholders' approval, which takes the total dividend of INR 6.5 crore share, per share for this financial year. The total dividend of INR 6.50 crore per share for the face value of INR 2 crore per share, the highest ever dividend declared in the history of IRCTC. I'd like to conclude my opening remarks and shall hand over the call to my colleague and Director of Finance CFO, Mr. Ajit Kumar, to brief you on the financial and segmental performance of the company. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everybody, and I hope you and your dear ones are in good health. I shall first give a brief overview about annual performance and then Q4 FY 2024 results, post which we shall have the question and answer session. The annual performance of FY 2024.
Our annual operating revenue for FY 2024 is an impressive INR 4,270 crores, reflecting a substantial 20.5% year-over-year growth. This achievement underscores our sustained momentum and strategic expansion efforts. Our absolute EBITDA increased by 14.89% year-over-year to INR 1,466 crores, with our EBITDA margin remaining stable at 34.3% compared to 36% year-over-year. This stability demonstrates our effective management, as well as operational efficiency, despite changes in our revenue mix. Net profit before a special item soared to INR 1,170 crores, significantly higher than INR 978 crores in the previous year. Now, quarterly performance, that is Q4 FY 2024.
For Q4 FY 2024, we achieved another quarter of robust growth, with revenues reaching INR 1,155 crores, marking a 3.3% quarter-over-quarter and just under 20% year-over-year increase. This growth was primarily driven by our catering segment, which despite its relatively lower margin, contributed significantly to our overall revenue. Now, the business segment highlights the different segments. The first one, internet ticketing. The internet ticketing segment continued to demonstrate its resilience, especially with the transition of reserved to unreserved tickets back to unreserved tickets, as during the pre-pandemic period. The segment reported a revenue of INR 342.4 crores, growing by 2.1% quarter-over-quarter and 16% year-over-year.
EBIT margin remains robust at 80.3%, despite minor variations, that is 83% quarter-over-quarter and 88.1% year-over-year, reflecting our strong market position and operational efficiency. Now, the next segment is the catering. Our catering segment maintained its strong growth momentum, with revenue rising to INR 530.8 crore, an increase of 4.5% quarter-over-quarter and 34.1% year-over-year. While the EBIT margin moderated to 8.7%, that is 15.4% quarter-over-quarter and 12.1% year-over-year, the segment's revenue growth underscores the increasing demand and our ability to scale operations effectively as per the need. Next segment is the tourism.
The tourism segment showed a solid quarter-over-quarter growth of 3.2%, with revenue at INR 201.7 crore. Although there was slight year-over-year decline, the EBIT margin was strong at 9.4%, that is 12.1% quarter-over-quarter and 13.5% year-over-year, indicating the segment's resilience and potential for future growth. The next segment is Rail Neer. Rail Neer reported steady revenue of just under INR 80 crore, a stable quarter-over-quarter, while achieving a 13.9% year-over-year growth. The EBIT margin improved significantly to 13.3%, recovering from a loss on a quarter-over-quarter basis and achieving 18.6% on a year-over-year basis, showcasing our efforts to enhance profitability as well as the market reach.
Now, the overall our Q4 FY 2024 results highlight a successful year of growth and strategic execution. We remain committed to building on this momentum and delivering sustained value to our stakeholders. For Q4 FY 2024, the CapEx was INR 55 crore taken. The CapEx for FY 2024 to finally INR 240 crore. The cash and bank balancing company as of the end of FY 2024, is INR 2,263 crore and net worth is INR 3,230 crore. This brings me to the end of my opening remarks, and if there is, we will have the question answer session now, and if there is specifically data which is, I mean, very minor data or any specific data, then you can always email to the CRO, the Mr.
Anil Sharma, and then we will provide the, we'll provide the data as per our books of accounts. So now we can straightaway move to the question answer session. Thank you.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone phone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking the question. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Jinesh Joshi. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks for the opportunity. Sir, my question is on our catering division. So if I look at our EBIT margin, which used to hover in the band of about 15%-17% in the last three quarters, they have come down to about 8.7%. So any specific reason for such a sharp deterioration? And how should we look at the margin trajectory over the next couple of quarters?
Thank you, Mr. Joshi. It's a nice question and a very pertinent one. I know that all of you are must be liking to know the reason for the day. In fact, if you see, if you compare our catering revenue of on a quarter-to-quarter basis of last, say, fourth quarter of 2023 and this quarter four of 2024, you will see that the revenue is almost almost the same. Last year it was INR 48 crore, this year it is INR 46 crore. The reason being, you see the, the, in the segment size, the revenue from catering has increased manifold.
It has increased by say, INR 500 crore, and during the year, and in the quarter also, it has increased from INR 507 crore to INR 530 crore. Because of charging of assigning over or over its cost, as per the revenue segment, this booking of expenditure of administrative nature has been done on this segment more than any other segment. Then we have a 5% cost on our GST for the mobile catering services which we provide. And during this quarter, this is like the if you see the history, this is the highest rate generally higher compared to other quarters.
What we have done, because of our long-term catering contract, which we have already entered a few and in the process of entering a few more, what we have done, we have provided a depreciated cost of 9 departmental kitchens, which we are running at the moment, which we will not be running anymore after finalization of all the contracts. That also we have provided around INR 2 crore for that, okay. So that is. These are the main reasons for this. As far as your concern for future, I see there is no problem ahead, because we are already working on long-term contracts. Our e-catering business has already crossed 1 lakh mark per day. We have entered into an MoU with the Central Armed Police Forces.
We are sure to get new trains, many more new trains, because of the addition of the capacity by railways. And last but not the least, you are aware that we all are aware that 1,400 ABSS stations are Amrit Bharat Stations being upgraded. We have an opportunity to grab many businesses there of static types, like food plazas at stations, lounge, retiring room, et cetera. So I see a robust future rather than a concern. Thank you very much.
Sure, sir. Just a related follow-up. You mentioned that there was some one-off pertaining to nine departmental catering units, the cost pertaining to this catering units, and if I heard it right, you mentioned that amount was INR 2 crore, which again, is not a very big sum. And again, you also highlighted that there was 5% GST on mobile catering, but I believe that should be a pass-through. So I'm still not very clear as to what basically led to a sharp deterioration, because from INR 78 crore in terms of absolute EBIT, we are down to about INR 46 crore, which is a swing of about thirty, forty crores. So if you can just probably call out one big cost line item, which is sitting in the-
I got your point, Mr. Joshi. I mentioned about INR 2 crore, that I want to be very fair with us, that we don't want to continue with the legacy. If we are closing down, then INR 2 crore is also a very important figure. But the main reason which I told you about the annual overhead charging onto the segment of administrative cost. I'll just give you an example of the INR 21 crore administrative cost. And because we, this segment revenue, confirms to around, 45%-50% of the revenue, so around 50% of that has been charged on this segment. So though our overall profit is best ever, we have followed that formula of charging over it as per the segmental revenue.
Here we have charged around INR 11 crore approximately.
This is much clearer. Sir, second, bookkeeping question is with respect to the jump in CWIP on your balance sheet. So if I see, the CWIP number for FY 2024, that is at about INR 440 crore, and the swing is quite high, because in FY 2023, that number was INR 33 crore. So, can you highlight what does this pertain to, given the fact that we do not have any major CapEx lined up?
Yes. It's again it's a very good question. Last year, it was as an advance, capital advance for making our offices. This year we are charging capital work in progress. We have already bought it, we have paid it, we are already in the process of renovating this office for final use.
Okay, got that. So one last question from my side. If you can just provide a break-up between the convenience and non-convenience fee for the quarter, and also the total number of tickets booked?
You will be happy to know that, this quarter we have booked an average daily ticket with INR 12.191 lakh, which is the highest ever, again. This financial year we have achieved daily ticket booking of INR 12.38 lakh tickets per day, as compared to INR 11.82 lakh tickets per day last year.
Sir, the breakup between convenience and non-convenience fee for the quarter, if you can just share that?
Like, in INR 11,183 crore of total-
Non-convenience.
Non-convenience fee, and INR 2 crore- INR 4 crore is a convenience fee.
This, these are the figures for the full year, right?
We will give you the breakup. There is no problem. We'll share that with you.
Okay, no problem. I'll take it offline. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you, Joshi.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press Star and One to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Pranav Mashruwala from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Am I audible?
Yes.
Yeah. So just a question on, catering business, sir. So right now we have about, 470+ trains, and 700+ trains under, TSV. So what are our plans to add, more units? What are the current units under FY 2024, and what would be your plans for FY 2025? Thank you. Hello?
Yeah. Mr. Pranav, we at the moment putting together, we are running 1,265 units in all, and this includes all kinds of contract, mobile contract. But, as the new trains will get introduced, we'll add the numbers. I can't give that number right now, because it is basically over the years regularly, trains are introduced, and we are asked to provide the catering services. Now, your concern may be how many more numbers we'll be able to add. So what is the expectation? The exact number I can't give, but we all listen from the various speeches or various notification or various press release by Railways and its ministry. We get to know that mostly they are now working to introduce more and more number of Vande Bharat trains.
This opens for us a very good opportunity to add numbers and numbers and numbers. Thank you very much.
Yeah. Okay, thank you, sir. The current capacity utilization at about of Rail Neer plants?
You see, last year it was INR 11 lakh bottle per day that we were utilizing. This year, we have improved it to INR 12 lakh bottles per day. You will be happy to know that at the moment, we are, like, utilizing around, supplying around INR 14 lakh, INR 14.5 lakh bottles per day.
This is a bit lesser than FY 2023. FY 2023, we had about INR 15.52 lakh bottles per day. So any reason for the decline?
No, no, that may be a peak average, because what I got the information, I will cross-check it. It was INR 11 lakh only, and this year it has improved to INR 12 lakh for the finance, for this financial year.
Okay. Thank you, sir. That's it.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mohit Jain from Tara Capital. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Am I audible?
Yes, sir.
Yeah, hi. Just some more questions regarding the catering business. Can you help us understand what's the, you know, status of the dispute on license fee? Where are we on that? And whenever that dispute is resolved, how much incremental revenue from license fee can we expect going forward?
I could not get your name, sorry.
Yeah, my name is Mohit. Mohit Jain.
Mohit, you know that this matter is under sub judice, and I should not share this in a public forum. Thank you very much.
Okay. I mean, I understand that, but, can you just tell us how much is the claim from your side? I mean, how much are you claiming that you are entitled to receive?
You see, it would not be good on my part to share any number.
Fair enough. Fair enough. So, for the year, you know, the margin for the catering business, I think, was around 12%, if I'm not mistaken. There were some, you know, overhead expenses that you had to allocate in the fourth quarter. Can you help us, sort of, you know, can you tell us what's, what would the margin look like for FY 2025? What is the number that we should work with? For the entire year.
You see, our, I'm looking to around 15%.
Okay. So FY 2025, 15% is the number that we should sort of work with?
Yeah.
Understood. And, in the quarter, there was a sequential decline in the margins for the ticketing segment. I think it declined from 83% odd percent level to 80%. Can you help us understand what drove that? And, what is the kind of number that we should work with, in this segment, going forward?
Yeah. You see, it is because of the government policy on UPI. Nowadays, UPI is much more in use, and there we are charging less than a normal ticketing. Like, here we charge INR 20 and INR 10, around one third discount we give.
So can you tell us what was the percentage of tickets booked using UPI in this quarter versus earlier quarters? And, what should we expect going forward?
Exact figure I will give you for the quarter-wise details, but, overall, you see, it has increased to 39%. Earlier it was 33%.
So it has increased from 33%-39%. So, so would it be fair to say that if this number stays around this level, then, 80% would be the new norm for convenience fee?
I could not get your question.
Sorry. I mean, what I'm trying to unsay is that if the percentage of tickets booked using UPI, let's say, is around 39% going forward, then should the, you know, margin in the ticketing segment be around 80% going forward?
You see, you should see it like this, in absolute terms, how much we are increasing, and from 83% of booking as on date, how can we improve it to, say, 85% kind of thing? So, here I have to say two things. First thing is, yes, something between 80%, 83%, that's if you take a real effort to show about this. But, if you see that we are exploring on non-convenience fee to improve our margin.
Okay. I have two more questions, just thanks for your time. One question that I have is, when should we expect, let's say, next round of, tariff hikes, for the catering segment?
It's an ongoing process, and it is not dependent on us. It is taken by a decision taken by a ministry based on many things. One amongst them is the market, economic, like inflation and all.
Okay, but I mean, any tentative timeline, whether it's, it can happen this year, next year, or, do we have any clarity at all?
You see, last time also I told that life expectancy has now increased to 79 years, so we can't say that each person will live to that, and when, and, and who will live, live to that. So what I'm trying to say and suggest here, that I'm not the authority, so I should not comment.
Sure. And-
Whenever, whenever there a situation arises, it happens. Thank you.
Okay. And just one last feedback from my side, and this has been mentioned on IRCTC's call earlier also. It would be really helpful if you can release a deck with your earnings release, which has all the granular data regarding, you know, number of tickets booked using UPI, number of tickets booked every day. You know, it would be helpful for us as investors if you, if we have a deck so that we can sort of get those data in a readily available manner.
I don't see any problem in this.
Yeah, that would be really helpful. Thanks a lot for your time and all the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Madhuchanda Dey from MC Pro. Please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good afternoon. So I have couple of questions. The first question is on the tourism margin. I mean, you know, we see a drop again in the fourth quarter, and the margin has kind of been pretty volatile. One, earlier in the year, it was because the haulage charges. So now, can you explain what is the sustainable level of margin in the tourism segment?
It should be, like, 8%-9%.
Any particular reason why it dropped to 5.9% in the fourth quarter?
Yeah, because of charging of the haulage charge on previous revenue by railway with retrospective effect. That is the main cause.
So that continued in the fourth quarter also?
No, no, the issue is not that. The issue is that it was implemented with retrospective effect, and we have already represented to the Ministry of Railways in this regard.
Okay, understood. So, I mean, what makes you confident about a 8% kind of a margin going forward? The haulage charges will not be implemented, or it is after factoring in the haulage charges?
... I could not get your question properly.
My question is, in FY 2025, would you still be required to pay the haulage charges to Railways?
You see, if I run the train, I have to bring operating efficiency and do some marketing efforts to improve our like occupancy and improve the non-fare revenue. I have to look forward for other streams of the profit or margin or revenue. This is how everyone like railway or airlines work.
Okay. And my second question is a housekeeping one. You have reported a revenue of INR 342.4 crore in the internet ticketing. If you could break it up between convenience and non-convenience, please.
Yeah. It is around INR 224 crore is the convenience fee, and remaining is the non-convenience fee.
What is the total number of tickets sold in the fourth quarter?
It is INR 12.91 lakhs per day. I can give you the numbers. That, that we'll be able to send you also. Just need... Total ticket booked is INR 11 crore, INR 74 lakhs, INR 45,000 crore .
INR 11 crore, INR 74 lakhs INR 45,000 crore
Correct.
Okay, that's helpful. Okay, that's helpful.
Any such information you want, you can send mail to IRCTC, Mr. Anil Sharma. We'll be happy to share that. Thank you.
Yeah. As one of our colleague pointed out, if you could put it in a deck, that would really be helpful. We will avoid all these housekeeping questions henceforward. My last question is, which segment, like in FY 2024, catering business was the key driver of revenue growth. Going forward in FY 2025 and beyond, what are the segments which are going to kind of lead the growth according to you?
You see, if, if, before answering that, first of all, let us understand, or let me explain that we are working in an environment, and largely environment related to railway at the moment. And if you see how railway is growing or how infrastructure in railway is growing, how the opportunity in the economy growing and railway portion particularly growing, I see that business opportunity starts with booking of tickets, and then serving these people with our catering railway and tourism packages or tourism products. So, I see, whereas I see that there will be incremental growth in the ticketing, but we have yet to capture the other three products to its good level. So opportunity is there.
Our product mix will certainly change, and which is changing also, you see quarter by quarter. So in absolute terms, we will be certainly growing very high, but as the product mix will increase, the profit margin of the segment will decide the ultimate things.
Okay. Thank you and all the best.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Deepesh Nakhani from Dolat Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, I'm audible?
Yes, sir.
Yeah. So, I just wanted to know what net growth in State Teertha segment in this quarter?
You see, this quarter is basically election declared. So, model code of conduct has been implemented. So I, per se, I can give you the figure, we'll share you the figure, but per se, this quarter is not for this State Teertha business. Because we have MoU with six or seven states, but we are not able to run the train. Like we have the MoU with Chhattisgarh, we have MoU with Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Goa, all these states we have MoU. There is a demand, but we are not able to, we could not able to run the train because of model code of conduct. Thank you very much.
Okay, okay. And also wanted to know how many prepaid trains are there in catering, and the margins operated in prepaid catering are lower or higher than the non-prepaid ones?
You see, there are 563 prepaid trains, isn't it? Just a month, please hold on.
Okay.
We have 120 prepaid trains, and remaining 443 mail express trains. And we have 702 this e-catering. Certainly, if you go by the train, train-wise, then pre-paid train will have certainly better margin or better revenue potential than the mail express, because here you charge the customer at the time of booking the tickets. So it is certainly more.
Okay, okay. And, just a bookkeeping, bookkeeping question. I wanted to know the iPay revenues for this quarter.
Okay. It is around 100 something, okay, quarter.
Sorry, can you come again?
It's INR 22.35 crore.
Okay, okay, thanks.
Hello, Deepesh, sir, does that answer your question?
Yes, yes.
Okay.
Thank you.
Thank you. And the next question is from the line of Ayush, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for the opportunity. Just want to go ahead with regards to the catering business. So, as we have seen a good growth trajectory in this year, just want to understand about how the recent tie-ups with Swiggy, Zomato is playing out on, if you can, you know, comment on the incremental revenue from incremental revenue contribution from these aggregators.
You see, we have started this year with around 60,000, okay? 60,000 bookings per day. It has crossed 100,000 mark during this month only. So it's a very good growing. And already we have, like I boarded, 2 main aggregators. So, so I, so I feel that, it's good, a good business for-
Fifteen percent.
We have 15% margin. You see, we book around INR 1.5 crore worth of booking daily, and we get 15% out of that.
Okay. And, is it like you have expanded to all the stations, or is it just like 50, 60 that you highlighted, like once you signed up the MoU?
No, we have 407 stations already covered. We will expand it, slowly.
How is the trajectory going ahead, like in FY 2025? What are your expectations with regards to the growth?
Internal target, we have set around INR 1.5 lakh, not to be disclosed.
Sure. Thank you.
Does that answer your question?
Yes, thanks.
Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, you may press Star and One to ask a question. The next question is from the line of Hardik Kantaria, an individual investor. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, I want to ask one question. Couple of quarters ago, we saw one filing that we have formed a new company for the payment gateway business. So I just wanted to ask, is it only for the bookkeeping side, or we also want to get into the payment gateway business as well? Thanks.
No, we are applying for license from RBI, of course, for payment gateway.
Does it mean that we'll provide the payment gateway services to the enterprises, or is it only for our own catering business?
Yeah, it will be for everybody.
Okay, great to know. Thank you so much.
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ratan Joneja, from CoValue Technologies Private Limited. Please go ahead.
Thanks for the opportunity. Sanjay, sir, I have a few questions for you regarding internet ticketing. My first question is about the recent announcement of the to remove the wait list passengers by the Indian Railways in a span of three to five years. Now, does it mean that for these trains the unreserved category will go away, and you will have to... They will come on our site to book the tickets? That's my first question. Second question is, our rates for convenience fee are the same as for Vande Bharat versus the normal other trains. Is there a plan to increase, increase the tariffs or change it to the more percentage more in the near future?
Hello?
Yes.
Hello, am I audible, Hardik?
Yes, sir.
You told about waiting list tickets in next three to four years. It will be very specific, is 2,000 passengers. And it does not mean that this unreserved ticketing will go away, unreserved purchase will go away.... What I could understand from the various notification, not official notification, news reporting and all, the government is thinking of providing a smooth transition facility, transport facility, which is environment friendly, that is railway. And there you need not have a waiting list. Well, they will enhance the capacity to ensure that we get the ticket as we desire.
If you see the pipeline, if you see the investment, like, INR 2. 4 lakh crore being invested in railways, DFC also is coming up, sharing line capacity from the diagonals and the number of coaches and locals being planned, number of Bharat, Vande Bharat trains being planned. So I think that does not mean that unreserved coaches will go away. That will remain there. In unreserved, you don't need a waiting list. You can board the train with the unreserved tickets. So that's the first question. The second question is about the convenience fee in Vande Bharat train versus other trains. It is the same. There is no change. And is there any plan? Once we plan, you will know. Thank you very much.
All right. Thank you.
Thank you. As there are no further questions, I would now like to hand the conference over to management for closing comments.
Thank you very much for your, I mean, insights and, what you see the questions are concerned, because this is always an opportunity to understand and learn and, it's a guide for the future. And if there is any other, I mean, if you're, study and all that, the CRO, Mr. Anil Sharma, you can always, send it, and we would love that, your any suggestion is welcome, and so we look forward that in the next quarter, we will come with a new robust flow. Thank you very much.
On behalf of Dolat Capital, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines.
Right. Okay. Thank you.